When fishing from shore, it is common for fishermen to put a forked stick in the ground to hold the top of the pole upward. When the fish pulls on the line, the fisherman can see the end of the pole move and can grasp the pole, hook the fish and pull the fish in.
When fishing from a dock, however, the forked stick apparatus is not useful so the fisherman must use other alternatives. One alternative is to merely hold the fishing pole, which is extremely tiring. Another alternative is to lay the fishing pole on the dock, but then the fishing pole gets in the way of foot traffic, is not readily accessible other than by stooping down rapidly in order to hook a fish and there is a considerable danger that a fish may pull the fishing pole into the water off of the top of the dock since there is nothing there to hold the fishing pole to prevent that from happening.
Fishermen have been known to cut holes in a dock in order to provide a place for putting the handle of the fishing pole in order prevent the aforementioned problems.
Consequently, there is a need for a fishing pole holder for use on docks which will overcome the aforementioned problems.